Outcomes of Nonagenarians Admitted to the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit by the Elders Risk Assessment Score for Long-Term Mortality Risk Stratification

There are limited data on outcomes of older adults admitted to cardiac intensive care units (CICU), and there are no data on outcomes after admission to the CICU in nonagenarians. Our purpose was to identify whether the Elders Risk Assessment (ERA) index could risk stratify older adults after CICU admission. We retrospectively identified 453 nonagenarians admitted to the CICU between 2004 and 2013. End points included mortality, length of stay, incidence of delirium, and discharge disposition. Average age of the cohort was 92 ± 2 years, and the average ERA score was 13 ± 6. A total of 258 patients were female (57%). Most common admission indication was acute decompensated heart failure (57%) followed by acute myocardial infarction (49%). Loss of independence was observed after CICU admission, with 66% of patients living independently before admission, decreasing to 47% at discharge. Overall length of stay was 6 ± 5 days and CICU stay was 2 ± 2 days. Fifteen percent of patients died before hospital discharge. Median survival was 452 (interquartile range 40 to 1,371) days. ERA score effectively predicted survival (log-rank test, p = 0.002). ERA score of 16 or greater and ERA score of 9 to 15 were both associated with increased risk of mortality compared with the reference (score 4 to 8): hazard ratio 2.00, 95% confidence interval 1.37 to 2.90, p = 0.003, and hazard ratio 1.48, 95% confidence interval 1.06 to 2.08, p = 0.02, respectively. In conclusion, nonagenarians admitted to CICU experience reasonable outcomes. The ERA score effectively risk stratifies nonagenarians admitted to the CICU and may help with identification of vulnerable patients at risk of adverse outcomes.